Publication: Financial Capability in Low- and Middle-Income Countries : Measurement and Evaluation
Loading...
Published
2013-06
ISSN
Date
2013-11-18
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
This report provides an overview of the conceptual foundations and work program implemented by the World Bank under the Russia Financial Literacy and Education Trust Fund (RTF) generously supported by the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation beginning in October 2008. The overall objective of the Trust Fund was to support implementation of the December 2006 summit statement from the Russian G8 Presidency, which greatly advanced the topic of financial literacy and education within the international policy discussion. The specific objective of the overall effort was to extend the knowledge base to help Low-Income Country's (LICs) and Middle-Income Country's (MICs) prepare and implement national strategies and programs in this area. This report positions the results of the RTF work program undertaken by the World Bank within the broader realm of international knowledge activities. It highlights the contributions of this work program to the conceptual development and measurement of financial capability and the evaluation of the results achieved by programs directed towards its enhancement. The elements of the work program led by the World Bank focused on two measurement-related topics: 1) how to measure financial capability in a way that is applicable to diverse levels of economic development and across individuals of different income levels; and 2) how to measure the effectiveness of interventions to improve financial capability including, but extending well beyond, formal financial education programs.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Mulaj, Florentina; Holzmann, Robert; Perotti, Valeria. 2013. Financial Capability in Low- and Middle-Income Countries : Measurement and Evaluation. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/16293 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Bringing Financial Literacy and Education to Low and Middle Income Countries(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2010-07)This paper presents a World Bank led and Russia trust fund financed work program to measure financial capability and the effectiveness of financial education in low and middle income countries. The two activities and their staging have been motivated by the lessons of high income countries with financial literacy programs and the deviating characteristics of low and middle income countries. While progress has been made in high-income countries to measure financial capability, there is little robust empirical evidence that financial education can improve it. While applying the financial capability concept in low and middle-income countries looks promising it will need to be adjusted to their characteristic and supported by innovative interventions and rigorous impact evaluation to improve it.Publication Financial Literacy around the World : An Overview of the Evidence with Practical Suggestions for the Way Forward(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-06)Financial literacy programs are fast becoming a key ingredient in financial policy reform worldwide. Yet, what is financial literacy exactly and what do we know of its effectiveness? This paper collects insights from the literature thus far and summarizes global evidence on financial literacy, its correlates, and existing and upcoming causal investigations. The authors conclude with a synthesis of policy advice and practical suggestions for the way forward in this fast growing area of research.Publication Slovakia : Technical Note on Consumer Protection in Financial Services, Volume 1. Main Report(Washington, DC, 2007-07)As financial markets develop and deepen, one of the key issues for the fair, open and efficient operation of the markets is the protection of consumers rights in financial services. Be they bank depositors or borrowers or investors in insurance policies, securities or investment or pension funds, financial consumers need the ability to accurately understand the terms and conditions of their contracts and take action if the terms of contracts have been violated. The Note is the second report in a pilot program to analyze consumer protection in financialservices.The objectives of the Note are three-fold, to: (1) present a set of draft good practices for assessing consumer protection in financial services; (2) conduct a review of the existing rules and practices in Slovakia compared to the draft practices; and (3) provide recommendations on ways to improve consumer protection in financial services in Slovakia. The Technical Note wasprepared at the request of the Slovak Ministry of Finance, with the valuable support of the National Bank of Slovakia and other government agencies, ministries, and non-government organizations. In the past the World Bank has also prepared governance reviews of the Slovak financial sector for banking and private pension funds. Few guidelines are available for consumer protection in financial services. Consumer protection in financial services remains a new and developing area for which no consensus has developed on the broad parameters against which a specific country might be analyzed. This Note relied on the EU Directives related to consumer protection and the reports of European financialregulatory and supervisory agencies. Other sources were also used. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission and other state, federal and self-regulatory agencies have developed laws, rules and guidelines to protect financial consumers. In addition, the 2003 OECD Guidelines for Protecting Consumers from Fraudulent and DeceptiveCommercial Practices across Borders and the 1999 United Nations Guidelines for Consumer Protection served as useful reference points for general consumer protection not related to the financial sector. The recommendations in the Note go beyond the provisions of the EU Directives currently in force. As described in the EU Consumer Protection strategy announced in March 2007 and the April 2007 Green Paper on Retail Financial Services, European financial consumers wouldbenefit from stronger legal and institutional protections than are currently in place. Both in Europe and elsewhere, contemporary thinking on consumer protection is rapidly evolving. The Technical Note takes into account the international discussion on financial consumer protection and evolving good practices in financial consumer protection. Thus, the Note presents recommendations that are applicable to the Slovak financial sector, but in some cases go beyondthe minimum requirements set by EU legislation.Publication A Toolkit for the Evaluation of Financial Capability Programs in Low-, and Middle-Income Countries(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013)When resources are scarce and social safety nets are weak, households' ability to manage income and assets wisely may be an important determinant of economic security. However, many open questions remain about how households in low and middle-income countries gain and exercise financial capability, and the best ways for governments and the private and nonprofit sector to help increase this capability. With the exception of a small but important number of studies that have recently been completed or are currently under way, robust evidence regarding the efficacy of financial capability interventions is relatively sparse compared to the level of interest and programmatic activity. One reason for this is a lack of systematic evaluation. The toolkit draws from past experience and the experience of the Russia Financial Literacy and Education Trust Fund pilot projects to provide concrete and tangible examples for the reader that illustrate the specific circumstances and challenges in this field. This toolkit is designed for researchers who are interested in conducting an evaluation of a financial capability program and for policy makers and practitioners interested in commissioning an evaluation. It will also be useful to evaluation researchers who want to brush up on a research technique they are less familiar with or who are new to the area of financial capability and financial education, particularly in Low, and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC). This toolkit is intended to be a practical, hands-on guide to designing, conducting, and analyzing financial capability evaluations, with a focus on doing so in LMICs. The toolkit covers a wide range of material on how to design, conduct and analyze evaluations, material that is spread out over the 13 chapters that follow. The chapters are contained within four overarching parts: setting the stage for monitoring and evaluation (M&E): understanding the M&E process and concepts (chapters 2-3); conducting M&E for financial capability programs (chapters 4-7); collecting and analyzing M&E Data for Financial Capability Programs (chapters 8-10); and other Issues in conducting M&E for financial capability programs (chapters 11-14).Publication Enhancing Financial Capability and Behavior in Low- and Middle-Income Countries(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-01)The Russia Trust Fund for Financial Literacy and Education was set up to support the advancement of financial literacy and capability in low- and middle-income countries. Established in 2008 with funding provided by the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, the Trust Fund enabled the World Bank and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to conduct methodological, analytical, and policy work on financial literacy, capability, and education. The program has supported work on the definition and measurement of financial capability, methods, and tools to understand the impact of financial capability programs; and field research on interventions designed to enhance financial capability. This volume presents the results of pilot projects financed by the Trust Fund. These include some truly pioneering research into new areas for financial capacity building, including the use of diaries to increase financial awareness, innovative methods for information provision, and new ways to deliver messages that encourage safer financial behavior, such as feature films, TV soap operas, and comic books. These methods open financial literacy to a much broader audience, and with potentially greater impact, than has been achieved through more conventional means.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication World Development Report 2020(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2020)Global value chains (GVCs) powered the surge of international trade after 1990 and now account for almost half of all trade. This shift enabled an unprecedented economic convergence: poor countries grew rapidly and began to catch up with richer countries. Since the 2008 global financial crisis, however, the growth of trade has been sluggish and the expansion of GVCs has stalled. Meanwhile, serious threats have emerged to the model of trade-led growth. New technologies could draw production closer to the consumer and reduce the demand for labor. And conflicts among large countries could lead to a retrenchment or a segmentation of GVCs. This book examines whether there is still a path to development through GVCs and trade. It concludes that technological change is, at this stage, more a boon than a curse. GVCs can continue to boost growth, create better jobs, and reduce poverty provided that developing countries implement deeper reforms to promote GVC participation; industrial countries pursue open, predictable policies; and all countries revive multilateral cooperation.Publication Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2022(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2022)Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2022: Correcting Course provides the first comprehensive analysis of the pandemic’s toll on poverty in developing countries. It identifies how governments can optimize fiscal policy to help correct course. Fiscal policies offset the impact of COVID-19 on poverty in many high-income countries, but those policies offset barely one quarter of the pandemic’s impact in low-income countries and lower-middle-income countries. Improving support to households as crises continue will require reorienting protective spending away from generally regressive and inefficient subsidies and toward a direct transfer support system—a first key priority. Reorienting fiscal spending toward supporting growth is a second key priority identified by the report. Some of the highest-value public spending often pays out decades later. Amid crises, it is difficult to protect such investments, but it is essential to do so. Finally, it is not enough just to spend wisely - when additional revenue does need to be mobilized, it must be done in a way that minimizes reductions in poor people’s incomes. The report highlights how exploring underused forms of progressive taxation and increasing the efficiency of tax collection can help in this regard. Poverty and Shared Prosperity is a biennial series that reports on global trends in poverty and shared prosperity. Each report also explores a central challenge to poverty reduction and boosting shared prosperity, assessing what works well and what does not in different settings. By bringing together the latest evidence, this corporate flagship report provides a foundation for informed advocacy around ending extreme poverty and improving the lives of the poorest in every country in the world. For more information, please visit worldbank.org/poverty-and-shared-prosperity.Publication Community-Based and Driven Development: A Critical Review(World Bank, Washington, D.C., 2004-02)Community-based (and driven) development (CBD/CDD) projects have become an important form of development assistance, with the World Bank's portfolio alone approximating 7 billion dollars. The authors review the conceptual foundations of CBD/CDD initiatives. Given the importance of the topic, there are, unfortunately, a dearth of well-designed evaluations of such projects. But there is enough quantitative and qualitative evidence from studies that have either been published in peer-reviewed publications or have been conducted by independent researchers to glean some instructive lessons. The authors find that projects that rely on community participation have not been particularly effective at targeting the poor. There is some evidence that CBD/CDD projects create effective community infrastructure, but not a single study establishes a causal relationship between any outcome and participatory elements of a CBD project. Most CBD projects are dominated by elites and, in general, the targeting of poor communities as well as project quality tend to be markedly worse in more unequal communities. However, a number of studies find a U-shaped relationship between inequality and project outcomes. The authors also find that a distinction between potentially "benevolent" forms of elite domination and more pernicious types of "capture" is likely to be important for understanding project dynamics and outcomes. Several qualitative studies indicate that the sustainability of CBD initiatives depends crucially on an enabling institutional environment, which requires upward commitment. Equally, the literature indicates that community leaders need to be downwardly accountable to avoid a variant of "supply-driven demand-driven development." Qualitative evidence also suggests that external agents strongly influence project success. However, facilitators are often poorly trained and inexperienced, particularly when programs are rapidly scaled up. Overall, a naive application of complex contextual concepts like "participation," "social capital," and "empowerment" is endemic among project implementers and contributes to poor design and implementation. In sum, the evidence suggests that CBD/CDD is best done in a context-specific manner, with a long time-horizon, and with careful and well-designed monitoring and evaluation systems.Publication Within Reach(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-11-16)Despite global commitments made through the Paris Agreement in 2015 to combat climate change, their translation into national policies has been slow, raising concerns about the feasibility of achieving climate targets. While policies face many obstacles, the political economy is one of the primary impediments to climate action, and urgency to reduce emissions makes slow and gradual approach increasingly insufficient. The report attempts to identify key political economy barriers and explore options to address them through the 4i Framework, considering how institutions, interests, ideas, and influence affect the political economy. The report offers a practical guide to help countries address political economy barriers when implementing climate policies with three prongs: (1) Climate Governance: governments can adapt their institutional framework, in ways that fit with the pre-existing political economy and moving from opportunistic and unstable to strategic and stable climate institutions. Establishing strategic climate governance institutions – such as climate change framework laws, long-term strategies, or just transition frameworks - can alter the political economy, set clear objectives, improve coordination across actors, and improve the ability to monitor progress and hold decisionmakers accountable. (2) Policy Sequencing: policies can be prioritized and sequenced based on dynamic efficiency, considering not only the economic costs and benefits, but also their feasibility and long-term impact on the political economy. The Climate Policy Feasibility Frontier tool can help identify policies that can overcome short-term political economy obstacles, and at the same time improve capacities and change the political economy to facilitate further climate action. (3) Policy Design and Engagement, considers the effective implementation of climate reforms by tactically navigating political economy constraints. This involves engaging citizens to create process legitimacy and reducing and managing distributional effects, not only across but also within income groups.Publication Choosing Our Future(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-09-04)Education can propel faster and better climate action in two crucial ways. First, education can galvanize behavior change at scale - not just for tomorrow, but also for today. Second, education can unlock skills and innovation to shift economies onto greener trajectories for growth. At the same time, education needs to be protected from climate change. Extreme climate events and temperatures are already eroding hard-won progress on schooling and learning. Climate change is causing school closures, learning losses, and dropouts. These will turn into long-run inter-generational earnings losses putting into jeopardy education’s powerful potential for spurring poverty alleviation and economic growth. Governments can act now to adapt schools for climate change in cost-effective ways. This report outlines new data, evidence, and examples on how countries can harness education to propel climate action. It provides an actionable policy agenda to meet development, education, and climate goals together, recognizing that tackling climate change requires changes to individual beliefs, behaviors, and skills – changes that education is uniquely positioned to catalyze.